Being Healthy: The Therapeutic Lifestyle

If your life is a fast paced picture with
motion panning techniques
If you forget the last time
you went for leak
If you wake up in the middle of the night wondering whether you’ll remember But then pick up your phone to see you already have it noted till December
Then you just need to stop. Breathe. Think.
And stop living like just another staff member.

So many of us go through life in a blur. Too many tasks, too little time, our brain cells aren’t absorbing what we’re doing, we’re not practicing mindfulness. Slowly this leads to degeneration of brain cells, fatigue sets in, nutrient absorption drops, and cravings begin. Before we know it, we’re reaching for comfort foods, binging on alcohol because we feel we “deserve” it after a hard day at work, and crave junk, cheesy food.

A therapeutic lifestyle actually focuses on healing us from the inside: mind, body and soul. In medical terms it’s defined only as a means to an end where a particular part of your body is targeted and not your complete being. But in holistic healing, we don’t look at the body as parts, but as a complete interconnected being where what your one part does affects the other. For example, if you go to a doctor for a gastric issue, he will treat a gastric issue by suppressing the symptoms. If you go to a holistic healer, they will ask you if you are stressed, have headaches, sleep less, get allergies or flus frequently, get anxiety attacks, feel lethargy or fatigue… you get the drift. It’s because every part is connected to the other, so we treat the complete being with a therapeutic lifestyle. While there are many therapeutic diets like DASH (dietary approaches to stop hypertension), the Diabetes Diet, the Heart Diet, sometimes when you have nothing wrong (which actually means it hasn’t reached a full blown disease stage) but don’t feel good, do the following:

Slow down: Speak to your manager/boss and negotiate for a late morning check in at work for some days. Sleep in late, or wake up and get some me-time. Getting the morning hours to ourselves, without the stress and hustle, calms the mind, which in turn calms the nerves of our body. This has multiple effects: it releases toxins, reduces blood pressure, calms digestion.

Eat fruit on empty stomach: When you’re doing your me-time, reach for herbal teas followed by fresh papaya, apple and pomegranate with a handful of nuts and seeds. Till lunchtime, consuming green and herbal teas and fresh fruits and nuts cleanses the stomach reducing inflammation inside the body, which causes disease.

Un-complicate food: Eat a complex carbohydrate diet with just 1-2 items on your plate to make it simple. For example: brown rice pulao and mixed greens salad with extra virgin olive oil. Or quinoa khichdi (make exactly like rice khichdi without lentils) with stir fried carrots, beans and capsicum. Eating these combinations reduces cravings and increases the feeling of wellbeing.

Move it: A really long walk with music playing is the best therapy. If the weather doesn’t allow you, do it in your building/home. Time it. One hour.

Breathe slowly: Every breath counts. Every time you’re stressed, do this: inhale to a count of 5, hold your breath to a count of 5, and exhale to a count of 5. In five rounds of this 5-5-5 breathing, you will begin to feel calm and sleepy. You can also do it lying in bed when you can’t get sleep in the middle of the night.

Always remember — no job, bank balance or human being is more important than your own peace of mind. If you’re well, energetic and happy, then only can you spread happiness for those you love or work well for those who employ you. So put ‘you’ first. Always.